German DDoSer jailed for World Cup gambling extortion

Frankfurter menaced bookies with rented bots

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A hacker based in Germany has been jailed for 34 months over a DDoS-based extortion scam against gambling websites in the run-up to last year's World Cup.

The unnamed Frankfurt resident was also ordered to pay damages of 350,000 Euros ($504,000) by a Düsseldorf court following his conviction for attempting to run a protection racket against six online betting sites. None of the affected sites have been named.

The miscreant reportedly hired a botnet at a cost of just $65 before threatening to blast target sites with junk traffic during the World Cup unless they paid him 2,500 Euros ($3,700).

Three targeted sites paid a combined total of 5,000 euros, while the other three sites refused to play ball, Deutsche Wellereports.

Details of the case, decided in March, were first published this week.

The case is one of the first of its type to be considered by the German courts. An earlier prosecution, involving a politically motivated denial of service attack against German airline Lufthansa back in 2001, failed to result in a conviction.

That case was brought against two non-profit organisations, who objected to Lufthansa's participation in the deportation of people seeking asylum in Germany. Considered by the courts back in 2005, the case failed essentially because the DDoSs had a purely political motive and were considered to be a non-criminal form of "civil disobedience". ®